Toccata

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-52
Author(s):  
Peter J. Schmelz
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
World War ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Concerto Grosso ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Gyorgy Ligeti

The second movement of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no. 1, Toccata, frantically evokes the baroque past, leavened with heavy borrowings from contemporary musical practice, particularly the micropolyphony of György Ligeti. This chapter begins to account for the distinctive musical language of the movement and the entire composition, its basic building blocks and its central structural and stylistic features. It addresses the music’s sources in Schnittke’s film music, including scores to a film about Rasputin (Agony, dir. Elem Klimov); an ecological cartoon (Butterfly, dir. Andrei Khrzhanovsky); a film about World War II (Ascent, dir. Larisa Shepitko); and The Tale of the Moor of Peter the Great (dir. Alexander Mitta). This background informs the chapter’s critique of Schnittke’s goal to bridge the gap between high and low in this music and his related goal to reconcile his paid job writing for film with his largely unpaid calling as a serious composer.

The Spectre of Americanization: Western Europe in the American Century

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Gassert
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Film Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
World War ◽  
Economic Threat ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

By 1945, the spectre of Americanisation had been haunting Europe for half a century. With the United States still struggling to establish colonial rule over the Philippine Islands, European observers began framing the ‘American challenge’ as a cultural and most of all economic threat to national independence. Controversies about the impact of ‘America’ often served as a stand-in for a more fundamental reckoning with processes of modernisation. The initial period of sustained Americanisation was the 1920s, when American film, music, and automobiles were conquering Europe for the first time. A second heyday of Americanisation ‘from below’ started with the ‘American occupation of Britain’ and that of continental Europe during and after World War II. This article focuses on Western Europe and Americanisation, highlighting Americanisation from above and Americanisation from below. It looks at two concepts that often come up within debates about Americanisation: Westernisation and anti-Americanism.

scholarly journals Collaboration in a “Land without a Quisling”: Patterns of Cooperation with the Nazi German Occupation Regime in Poland during World War II

Slavic Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus-Peter Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Mental Image ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
World War ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Polish Society ◽  
History Of

Astonishingly, we still do not have a history of collaboration in Poland during World War II. Klaus-Peter Friedrich shows that the building blocks for such a history already exist, however. They are scattered throughout the contemporary Polish press and studies on the Nazi occupation regime. Examples include institutionalized cooperation (Baudienst, Polish Police), ethnically defined segments of the population (Volksdeutsche), informal support of Nazi projects on ideological common ground (anti- Semitism and anticommunism), and the stance of the Polish peasantry as well as the Roman Catholic Church. Friedrich concludes that collaboration eludes study because of a mental image according to which ethnic Poles were the foremost victims of the occupiers and heroically resisted them. Questionable views of national self-interest keep Polish society from coming to terms with the past. Nevertheless, debates on “Polish collaboration” continue to recur—as they have since 1939.

scholarly journals Witold Lutosławski: artistic portrait on the background of world wars

2020 ◽  
pp. 184-199
Author(s):  
Yurii Zakharov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
General Concept ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
World War ◽  
Witold Lutoslawski ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Firing Squad ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Gradual Transformation

This article examines the life and artistic journey of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski over the period from 1913 to 1945. Special attention is given to the fate of his father Józef who along with his brother were executed by a firing squad in September 1918, as well as to the fate of the omposer himself and his brother Henryk during the World War II. In the second part of the article, the subject of research becomes the peculiarities of musical language of W. Lutoslawski, as well as his views upon the sound structure and dramaturgical construct of the compositions. The presence of two substantive aspects in Lutoslawski’s music is proven: 1) gradual transformation of harmonious vertical due to progressive changes or addition of sounds (in combination with intonation transformations); 2) dramaturgy of sections and dramaturgy of layers. The author offers a new perspective on the works of Witold Lutosławski as the continuation G. Mahler in the area of the general concept of symphonic style, as well as in the area of intonation plot. At attempt is made to explain the peculiarity of perception of Lutosławski’s music by Russian audience in the context of comparison of the Russian and Polish mentality.

An Exotic Enemy

2019 ◽  
pp. 197-233
Author(s):  
W. Anthony Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Racial Politics ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
World War ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Japanese Music ◽  
Musical Propaganda ◽  
The U.S

The cinema was the most effective medium for anti-Japanese propaganda in the U.S. during World War II and was the site of music’s most important wartime role. From shortly after Pearl Harbor to the end of the U.S. occupation of Japan in 1952, Hollywood produced a large number of films offering negative depictions of the Japanese. Music assumed multiple roles in these anti-Japanese feature films and U.S. government documentaries. Never had Orientalist and racial politics been more clearly evident in music heard by so many as in these productions. These films marshaled preexistent European music, stereotypical Orientalist signs, and traditional Japanese music against the exotic enemy. Select sophisticated examples of musical propaganda are analyzed, offering new perspectives for the study of cross-cultural musical encounters. For many in the U.S., Hollywood film music continues to shape their impressions of Japan and their perceptions of Japanese music.

An Exotic Enemy: Anti-Japanese Musical Propaganda in World War II Hollywood

2001 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Anthony Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Film Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
World War ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Feature Films ◽  
Japanese Music ◽  
Musical Propaganda

Abstract The cinema was the most effective medium for anti-Japanese propaganda in the United States during World War II and was the site of music's most important wartime role. From shortly after Pearl Harbor to the end of the U.S. occupation of Japan in 1952, Hollywood produced a large number of films offering negative depictions of the Japanese. Music assumed multiple roles in these anti-Japanese feature films and U.S. government documentaries. Never had Orientalist and racial politics been more clearly evident in music heard by so many as in these productions. These films marshaled preexistent European music, stereotypical Orientalist signs, and traditional Japanese music against the exotic enemy. This essay analyzes some sophisticated examples of musical propaganda that offer new perspectives for the study of cross-cultural musical encounters. For many in the United States, Hollywood film music continues to shape their impressions of Japan and their perceptions of Japanese music.

scholarly journals National Association of Russian Explorers: brief history

2021 ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Ivan Aleksandrovich Bulatov
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Association ◽  
Youth Organizations ◽  
World War ◽  
Youth Organization ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
Parent Organization ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
History Of

The subject of this research is the history of development of the National Association of Russian Explorers (NORR) – one of the youth organizations of White émigré. NORR was founded in 1928, and in the 1930s became the largest emigrant youth organization. However, after the World War II it basically ceased its activity. The first members of NORR came from the Scout movement, founding their ideology on the criticism of parent organization. Nevertheless, it did not prevent them from borrowing the most effective methods of scouting and adapt them to their ideology. The ideology was based on the Russian nationalism of imperial type, patriotism and militarism. Peter the Great was selected as the symbol of all the ideas. Leaning on the wide variety of source, including the materials introduced into the scientific discourse for the first time, the article examines the phenomenon of national upbringing in extracurricular organizations. The main conclusion consists in the thesis that the burst in popularity and subsequent decline of the National Association of Russian Explorers were associated namely with the national-patriotic component of upbringing, which was of crucial in the conditions of emigration. The fact that the leader of this association P. N. Bogdanovich, was able to offer a system of Russian national upbringing to general emigrant community was the key factor of its initial success. After World War II, NORR has lost many of its active members and winded down its activity; and the Russian Scouts implemented more national elements into their work, attracting patriotic youth. This brought the activity of NORR to an end.

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